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Sunday, June 25, 2017

Yesterday, Galen, John, and Kelly took a trip to the Shore Line Trolley Museum in East Haven to visit 3001's sister car 3000. That car is also in an unrestored state, but has not been disassembled like 3001 was. Interestingly, even though the cars are sisters, they display subtle differences

3000's controls. Note the foot button where 3001 has a pedal

3000's interior

We were also shown car 2350. This car has been restored and is operable. It is similar to what 3000 and 3001 would have looked like before they were modified for service in New Haven. (Treadle doors were added, along with the seat configuration changing to allow for more standee passengers.)

2350's controls

2350 has jump seats at either end to provide additional seating for passengers

This 'high-chair' allows the motorman to sit while operating, but flips to become a passenger seat when the car changes ends

2350 has wooden seats, just like 3000 and 3001 did when they first began service in Torrington

The shop also got to visit with car 1792, a double truck Brooklyn car that has many similarities to 169. We met the folks restoring and 1892 horse car (Metropolitan #3), which is coming along nicely, Then we took the time to wander through the other barns before heading home. We'd like to thank Bill for taking the time to show us both 3000 and 2350.

Saturday, June 17, 2017

Today started with some troubleshooting. 836 and 355 both had defect cards written during the week. Both cars had lighting issues and 355's troublesome west end trolley catcher had fallen off once again. 836 was found to have a mixture of 36, 56, and 75 watt light bulbs inside. We're uncertain quite how that happened. All the rouge bulbs were removed and replaced with the required 36 watt units. 355 was found to have four burnt out light bulbs, all on one side, leaving the car completely dark. A number of 36 watt light bulbs had to be scavenged from 5645 to finish both cars. 5646 will be sporting 56 watt light bulbs when it returns to service. In the afternoon, Paul and Larry replaced both the trolley catcher and its bracket on 355. Now, Operations no longer has to worry about the catcher falling off and potentially landing on someone's foot.

5645 was jacked and the the east end truck pulled out. By evening, motor four was out of the truck and its non-functional armature had been removed.

5645 is jacked and the truck has been pulled out

Larry begins hoisting the truck

Motor 4 is out, the armature is about to be removed

John has been hard at work tearing up 3001's floor and tracing the piping. Today, the car was cleaned up a little in preparation for Father's Day tours coming through tomorrow. So far, we've found two Connecticut Company tokens and an old matchbook cover advertising matchbooks in the car. John, Kelly, and Galen will all be onsite tomorrow to answer questions and give tours. John will be in the shop, Kelly will be in the Visitors' Center with the shop's winter project, 1500, and Galen will be leading trips from the Visitors' Center out to the shop.

Items found inside 3001: a matchbook cover and 2 tokens

Opposite side of the matchbook cover

3001 has dual air tanks, they are labeled for visitors to see during the tours

Sunday, June 11, 2017

836 returned to operating service yesterday morning, taking her first trips of 2017 down the line.

836 waits next to Kelly Barn for Operations to pick her up

New window frames are installed and painted on the north side

Fresh paint on the west end windows

During the week, John welded in patch panels on 169's dasher. Yesterday, the dasher was reinstalled on the car's east end by Bruce and Paul. 169 now looks much more like herself. Next week, they'll be reconnecting the dasher to the front windows.

Work has also progressed on 3001. The old, rotted roof has been removed. John has also begun removing the floor and mapping out the air system.

3001's roof has been removed

Flooring has been removed from the east end. Here a door motor and part of the air system are visible

Galen, Jim, and Adam ventured into track work and made great progress on the Shop-Northern Barn switch yesterday. The old, rotten switch timbers were removed and one of the two new timbers were installed.

Jim, Adam, and Galen prepare to remove the rotten timbers

1326's motor is back from being rebuilt. It will be installed after 5645's. 5645 was brought up to the shop yesterday afternoon to have it's forth motor installed. The car was prepared and is ready to be jacked next weekend.

Welcome

Following the process of maintaining and restoring trolley cars in the Lusa Car Shop at the Connecticut Trolley Museum in East Windsor Connecticut.

Interested in working with the trolleys? The Shop is always open to new volunteers, as are the other departments at the museum. Head on over to the museum's website for more information. No experience is necessary, just a willingness to help.